R. H. STODDARD: _Prefatory Memoir_ to ‘Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning addressed to Richard H. Horne.’ * * * * * [Sidenote: Her learning.] I have her ‘Essay on Mind,’ ... which, and the notes to it, contain allusions to books, as if known by everybody, which Henry Cary declared to me no young man of his day at Oxford had ever looked into. MARY RUSSELL MITFORD: _Letter to Rev. Mr. Harness_. * * * * * [Sidenote: Her shyness.] She is a delightful young creature; shy and timid and modest.... She is so sweet and gentle, and so pretty, that one looks at her as if she were some bright flower. MARY RUSSELL MITFORD: _Letter to her Father_, May, 1836. L’Estrange’s ‘Life of M. R. Mitford.’ London: R. Bentley & Sons, 1870. * * * * * [Sidenote: Her personal appearance in 1836.] My first acquaintance with Elizabeth Barrett commenced about fifteen years ago.[5] She was certainly one of the most interesting persons that I had ever seen. Everybody who then saw her said the same; so that it is not merely the impression of my partiality or my enthusiasm. Of a slight, delicate figure, with a shower of dark curls falling on either side of a most expressive face, large tender eyes richly fringed by dark eye-lashes, a smile like a sunbeam, and such a look of youthfulness that I had some difficulty in persuading a friend, in whose carriage we went together to Chiswick, that the translatress of the Prometheus of Æschylus, the authoress of the ‘Essay on Mind,’ was old enough to be introduced into company, in technical language was _out_. Through the kindness of another invaluable friend, ... I saw much of her during my stay in town. We met so constantly and so familiarly that in spite of the difference of age, intimacy ripened into friendship, and after my return into the country, we corresponded freely and frequently, her letters being just what letters ought to be--her own talk put upon paper. [Sidenote: Her illness.] [Sidenote: The tragedy at Torquay.]